J-Star Marine Services Traditional Boat Builders & Marine Engineers : 2026

Friday, 23 January 2026

The Pearly Miss runabout speedboat starting to have its mahogany trims fitted back in position.

The first of the Mahogany trim pieces getting refitted to the inside of the cockpit.

Clamped into place so that the position of the seat shoot bolts can be marked off and drilled out and the top and bottom edges can be radiused before the back faces are coated with varnish be for they are screwed back in position with A 4 stainless screws

Making off the second pieces before clamping it in place

Finally they are both in position and just need a finally trimming.

Wednesday, 21 January 2026

The picnic boat is back to be finished off and used in the local creeks

The picnic boat is back at the yard to get finished off and used in the local creek around this part of North Essex.

The boat needs a good washing down before any work can start and inspect the hull.

One job to do is to re-instate the base keel and bolt it through the hull.

Another job is to fill in the space between the propeller shaft tube the encapsulate the prop shaft tube to keep it in position.

Getting the transom inside shaped ready epoxy to the hull and then glassed over

Fitting the inside pad so that the level for the inwale and gunwale trim can be made and fitted so the gunwale and inwale can be finished off.

The outer pad is already made and will be fitted once the hull is painted

Starting to do the hull repair on the Wayfarer's bow

Having cut back the loose and broken hull it was time to grind the surround of the hole and feather edge the edges of the hole.

The hole edges now have all the damaged laminates removed and it is now time to grind back the edges so it can be laminated up back to the original specification.

Now getting the edges more to the correct level, just got to get into the locker to finish off the grinding from the inside.

Tuesday, 20 January 2026

Not all boatbuilding work is glamours, sometime you have to get in the bilges and scrub out the dirt and see how it comes up

Once all the floorboards and seats were removed it was time to get in the bilge area and start scrubbing thew years of dirt that as got down there and make a start of removing as much as it is possible to get off the hull.

A lot of elbow grease and scrubbing brushing

A lot of scrubbing to go before we will any progress in the bilge area

At least we are making headway

More scrubbing needed

Starting the refit on the wayfarer dinghy with a quick compounding of the hull and deck and then stripping out the seats and floorboards

After years of neglect it was time to give the hull and deck a quick compounding to see what the condition of the under laying gelcoat was and see how much cutting compounding was going to be needed to restore the gelcoat finish once more.

This photo show the constant between the faded gelcoat and a part that had been quickly compounded to see the underlaying gelcoat finish.

A good start to getting back the shine on this hull and deck once more.

Now it was time to remove the seats and the floorboards and see what the bilge was like under the floorboards.

The aft locker lid came up not to badly it is just in need of a further compounding and polishing and a couple of gelcoat repairs

All the old seats out and left to dry out and then use as patterns to make new seats which will be varnished and not slip areas put in the areas where it is needed.

The differing types of projects which J-Star Marine Services undertake from small gelcoat repairs to major restoration of different types and sizes of vessel which come into the yard.

https://youtu.be/I52qE2pc29M

SharedThis week we have finally got the Wayfarer dinghy in the workshop now the Stately speedboat as gone to another yard to get the final work done on the veneers on the deck and reskin the transom with a new layer of veneer.n the meantime the wayfarer is now in the workshop and the stripping out of the old seats and floor boards as begun and get room to do the repair of the bow where the launching trolley put a hole in the hull which we are going to repair over the next few days.

Also in the workshop are a number of smaller projects which are in differing stages of work. Jobs such as varnishing the decks on the Enterprise dinghy and then refitting the deck fittings and making new transom flaps for the self bailers. We have to continue with the Windboats Pearly Miss and make up new mahogany trims for the inside of the gunwales. Other work includes removing the bow handle and getting it re-powder coated along with the other deck fittings and remaking a new transom pad for the inside and outside of the transom. The list for her goes on for a while. The two dinghies which are in the workshop have to have a lot of work done on them, The 8ft tender as to have its fore and aft seats glassed in after the transom as a pad for an outboard glassed in and then the aft seat can be glassed in position. at the same time the seat supports will be glassed in position and the centre thwart will be made and fitted.

The blue dinghy as to have the bilge keel runner will be glassed in position and then the hull will get its first coat of hi-build epoxy primer before the hull is filled and faired and then repainted and the inside can start to be refitted out.

So busy times down at the yard and workshop.